17 September 2008
This photo is of the side of our house in Arlington. The bricks look old and worn, but not nearly so abused as most of the bricks in Galveston, Texas. We continue to send our healing thoughts and prayers to folks in the Houston/Galveston area as they attempt to get their lives back on track after Hurricane Ike. The Daily KRuMB continues to see an elevated number of hits each day, due to our Google ranking on searches about Ike and Galveston. I thought it might be a good idea to include the text from the Houston Chronicle article that Starr found a couple of days ago. This remains the most recent news we have about our beloved island and its Historical Landmarks. What follows is quoted:
Some 7,000 documented historic buildings are located on Galveston, an island that served as a gateway to Texas in the state’s early days. Of those, it is estimated as many as 1,500 of the structures sustained serious damage during Hurricane Ike.
An early assessment by the Galveston Historical Foundation shows the following conditions at historic sites.
U.S. CUSTOM HOUSE: Built in 1861, this structure serves as the headquarters for the Galveston Historical Foundation. It was flooded by as much as 8 feet of water, which damaged files, archives and equipment. An upstairs door is damaged. Roof damage, if any, is unknown.
ASHTON VILLA: This 1859 Italianate mansion lost two to three windows on its second floor and had up to 18 inches of flooding that likely caused extensive first-floor furniture damage.
BISHOP’S PALACE: This home, also known as the 1889 Gresham House, is the most visited historic building in Galveston. It appears to have sustained little damage, as was the case in the catastrophic 1900 hurricane. The home had as much as 3 feet of flooding on its bottom floor, which is slightly below ground level and is used for a ticket counter and offices. That floor is under renovation to become a visitors center.
THE ELISSA: The famous 1877 tall ship, restored in 1982 by the foundation, lost several sails but otherwise seemed to ride out the hurricane well. The vessel is attached to the shore through large steel pipes driven into the harbor bottom.
TEXAS SEAPORT MUSEUM AT PIER 22: This is Elissa’s home berth. It suffered damage to the brick and wooden pier, with a suspected total loss to the wooden workshops used for maintenance of the ship. The museum itself, in the 1990 Jones Building, suffered little damage.
THE SANTA MARIA: This 1937 restored wooden shrimp boat fared well in her slip near the Texas Seaport Museum with only minor damage.
MICHEL B. MENARD HOUSE: Built in 1838, the city’s oldest residential house sustained little visible damage.
SAMUEL MAY WILLIAMS HOUSE: Constructed in 1839 and one of the oldest residential houses on the island, it appeared to sustain little damage.
GARTEN VEREIN: An 1880 German dancing pavilion in Kempner Park managed by the foundation, Garten Verein appears to be undamaged.
ST. JOSEPH’S CHURCH BUILDING: The state’s oldest German Catholic church building, the wooden St. Joseph’s building was built in 1859. It closed as a church in 1968. The building lost one window but otherwise appears undamaged.
HISTORICAL FOUNDATION WAREHOUSE: This warehouse on Mechanic Street was inundated with at least 10 feet of water and sustained extensive damage. Much of its contents was destroyed, including equipment used during Dickens on the Strand, the popular holiday festival.
GALVESTON COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM: Housed in the 1921 City National Bank Building, the museum is a joint project of the historical foundation and the Galveston County Commissioners Court. A floodwater line can be seen below the entrance to the first floor. Unless there is roof damage, the building is believed to be unharmed.
Source: Galveston Historical Foundation.
End quote.
As you can see, the condition of the Tremont House Hotel, and the fate of the 2008 Dickens on the Strand Festival remain unknown.
~MB
Addendum: News Update on Historic Galveston. Special thanks to Donna who found this: http://www.click2houston.com/video/17485318/index.html
Frank Billingsley of Houston’s Channel 2, hosts a Walking Tour of Galveston Island, including visits to many of our well-loved landmarks. It takes about thirty minutes to view the whole thing, but it’s well worth the time. One small segment includes a quick interview with a representative from the Tremont who seems very positive about getting things back up and running—but no time frame is given. He said the hotel damage is pretty much limited to the ground floor and a few windows. One restaurant owner indicated his repairs and rebuilding would take “months.” Of course, there isn’t much going on yet, in the way of clean-up and repair, because there is no power and no water. Fisherman’s Wharf (our Saturday night dinner spot for many years), Rudy and Paco’s (our new favourite restaurant on the island), Willy G’s (our Sunday night dinner spot), and many, many other places we know well, all have extensive water and mud damage. Furniture is tossed about like matchsticks. Walls are already molding in the humidity, and first floors will probably need to be gutted completely. Fisherman’s Wharf’s harborside deck seems to be completely destroyed (remember the spot where Clay stood to take our photo on the Elissa a few years ago?). High water marks on the Strand are at about nine feet; on Post Office at about six feet, and on Broadway at about three feet. Pretty much every retailer, every business for that matter, in the area will have lost nearly everything they didn’t move to a spot higher than that. The property damage is mind-boggling. And, at this point, at least until services are restored, and work crews can begin, there’s no telling how long the recovery efforts will take. So, still no certainty about Dickens on the Strand. And, if there is a festival, where people will eat, shop, sleep, etc.
We’ll keep our Daily KruMB readers as updated as we are on all this.
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